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Concerts and Events
2009-2010 Concert Season - our 50th anniversary season!
To hear a recording of upcoming events, call (617) 623-1806.
Tickets for concerts in Watertown (not house concerts or other events) can be purchased online at BrownPaperTickets.com.
Use the code season50 to get member prices.
Print out the latest concert postcard, and please help us spread the word by passing them out to your friends!
- Sat., Sept. 12 2009: Kossoy Sisters
- Sun., Oct. 4, 2009: "Chasin' Gus' Ghost" (film) and jug band concert with Outrageous Fortune
- Friday, October 16 - Sunday October 18, 2009: Eisteddfod NY (FSSGB is a sponsoring organization)
- Thurs., Oct. 22, 2009: Cheyenne Brown and Seylan Baxter house concert
- Sat., Nov. 21, 2009: Ed Trickett
- Fri., Dec. 4, 2009: Nowell Sing We Clear
- Sun., Dec. 6, 2009: Pub carol sing
- Thurs., Dec. 10, 2009: Dónal Maguire house concert
- Sat., Jan. 9, 2010: Annual FSSGB Members' Concert
- Sat., Jan. 23, 2010: Elizabeth LaPrelle and Matt Brown
- Sat., Feb. 6, 2010: Sally Rogers and Howie Bursen
- Sat., Feb. 27, 2010: Benefit concert featuring the Dave Rowe Trio
- Sat., March 6, 2010: Jeff Davis house concert
- Thurs., March 18, 2010: Donna Hebert and Max Cohen house concert
- Sat., March 20, 2010: Gordon Bok
- Sun., March 28, 2010: "The Legacy of Johnny Cash and the Carter Family"
- Sat., April 3, 2010: The Short Sisters
- Sat., April 17, 2010: Martyn Wyndham-Read house concert
- Sat., May 1, 2010: Cathy Barton and Dave Para
The Kossoy Sisters
First Parish of Watertown
35 Church Street, Watertown
$15.00 general admission, $10.00 FSSGB members
All children 17 and under free
(See map and calculate directions on MapQuest)
For public transportation, check the MBTA web site.
This venue is handicap accessible
Purchase tickets online at: 
Use the code season50 to get member prices.
Audiences may recognize the voices of the Kossoy Sisters, identical twins, from their version of "I'll Fly Away" in the Coen Brothers' movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? They performed at the first Newport Folk Festival and sang in the original production of Woody Guthrie's Bound for Glory. Irene and Ellen began harmonizing at the age of 8 or 9, singing mostly what they heard around the house: songs of the 20's and music hall songs. In their early teenage years, they immersed themselves in traditional songs and became part of the music scene in Washington Square in Greenwich Village. By the age of 20 they had performed widely in New York. Although they sing mostly southern mountain songs, they have also adopted other traditional and contemporary songs (including humorous compositions by Irene), accompanying themselves on guitar and banjo.
In addition to Newport, the Kossoy Sisters performed for several years at the Fox Hollow Folk Festival, did a concert tour with Frank Hamilton in California in 1981, and sang at the University of Chicago Folk Festival, New York Pinewoods Camp, and Focal Point in St. Louis in the 1980's. After the 1997 reissue on CD of Bowling Green by Tradition/Rykodisc, the Kossoy Sisters resumed performing with concerts in Boston and Washington DC, among others.
The Kossoy Sisters' latest album, Hop On Pretty Girls, includes a mix of traditional southern mountain songs and originals-- including work by Irene and Ellen, Woody Guthrie and the Carter Family. Pete Sutherland, a fine instrumentalist and singer, is the artistic producer of the CD and accompanies the Kossoy Sisters on most of the songs. Two popular Boston area musicians, Lorraine and Bennett Hammond, lend their voices and instruments on two of the CD's songs, in addition to contributions by a variety of Vermont-based instrumentalists.
Chasin' Gus' Ghost (film) and jug band concert w/Outrageous Fortune
Sunday, October 4, 2009, 2pmLittle Kresge @ MIT, Cambridge (Map) (Directions)
Free admission
Join us for the first installment of FSSGB's new movie series!
"Chasin' Gus' Ghost" is a documentary film on the history of Jug Band Music. It traces the roots of American jug band music beginning with Gus Cannon and Cannon's Jug Stompers, The Memphis Jug Band and the Dixieland Jug Blowers from the 1920's, and weaves a tapestry through interviews, live performances, archival footage, and photographs showing their influence on the ever-popular folk and rock movements of the 1960's through to today's music around the world.
The movie is written and directed by independent filmmaker Todd Kwait, and includes interviews and live performances by John Sebastian from the Lovin' Spoonful, Jim Kweskin, Geoff Muldaur, Bill Keith, Maria Muldaur, and the late Fritz Richmond from the influential Jim Kweskin Jug Band, Bob Weir from the Grateful Dead, Charlie Musselwhite, Paul Rishell and Annie Raines, plus many more artists who were influenced by the great jug band musicians from our past.
Following the movie, Todd Kwait himself will answer any questions from the audience. After the Q & A will be a live concert of jug band music featuring Outrageous Fortune. Stick around for some foot-stompin' fun! People are invited to stay and jam after Outrageous Fortune finishes their set.
Cheyenne Brown and Seylan Baxter house concert
Thurs., Oct. 22, 2009, 8pmNewton, MA
$12 for all at the door
Reservations required; email suzanne AT smrozak DOT com for
reservations and directions.
The combination of Cheyenne Brown's exuberant and sensitive harp playing, Seylan Baxter's mellow, natural singing and her creatively atmospheric cello playing forms rich and varied musical textures with a distinctive style.
Whether in slow airs, jigs and reels or traditional songs Cheyenne and Seylan bring precision and empathy to their quirky, innovative arrangements.
Their energetic performances and warm stage presence dispel any stereotypes of stuffy instrumentalists and prove the effectiveness of this unusual line-up.
Cheyenne and Seylan met while studying on the prestigious Scottish Music course at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and performed for the first time together at Cowalfest in 2005.
They recently released their debut CD, 2:forty. It consists of 7 instrumental tracks and 6 Scots songs. You can hear cuts on their website, www.celloharp.com.
Ed Trickett
First Parish of Watertown
35 Church Street, Watertown
$15.00 general admission, $10.00 FSSGB members
All children 17 and under free
(See map and calculate directions on MapQuest)
For public transportation, check the MBTA web site.
This venue is handicap accessible
Purchase tickets online at:
Use the code season50 to get member prices.
The Folk Song Society is very pleased to present Ed Trickett in a rare New England solo concert. Ed Trickett has been collecting and interpreting traditional and traditional-based folk songs for over 30 years, and has appeared on over 40 recordings and appeared on Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion and other public radio broadcasts. His repertoire includes a wide range of ballads, sea songs, songs of love and protest, and an occasional song of no consequence whatsoever.
For his day job, he is a professor of psychology. He looks for the hidden truths in songs, and sings them to us in a manner that gives us a new meaning to old songs. Ed Trickett is well-known to New England audiences primarily due to his singing with New Englander Gordon Bok and Ann Mayo Muir. He accompanies himself on 6 and 12 string guitar and hammered dulcimer, an instrument that he helped popularize. Ed has a beautiful unaffected tenor voice that lulls you into enjoying a marvelous evening of music, as if joining him in his living room.
Nowell Sing We Clear
St. John's United Methodist Church
80 Mt. Auburn Street, Watertown
Admission: $18 members and students in advance
$20 non-members in advance
$22 for all adults at the door
Children 17 and under free
Mt Auburn:(See map and calculate directions on MapQuest)
For public transportation, check the MBTA web site.
This venue is handicap accessible
Purchase tickets online at:
Use the code season50 to get member prices.
We strongly recommend that you purchase tickets in advance for this show. Tickets will be available at www.BrownPaperTickets.com and at FSSGB concerts and events at the advance member and non-member prices. Advance tickets can also be purchased (at the NON-member advance price only) from Sandy's Music in Cambridge and the Minor Chord in Littleton. Or, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to FSSGB Tickets, 17 Faulkner Hill Road, Acton, MA 01720, and include a note saying how many member and non-member tickets you want.
This will be the thirty-second touring season of Nowell Sing We Clear with its unusual songs, carols, stories, and customs. Drawn mostly from English-language folk traditions, the songs tell both a version of the events and characters involved in the Christmas story and detail the customs which make up the twelve magical days following the return of the light at the winter solstice. Many of these ancient customs are the basis of the today's holiday traditions, such as visiting and feasting, gift-giving, carol singing from door-to-door and the adorning of houses and churches with garlands of evergreen.
Nowell Sing We Clear celebrates Christmas as it was known for centuries in Britain and North America and as it continues in many places to the present. The songs come from an age when the midwinter season was a time for joyous celebration and vigorous expression of older, perhaps pagan, religious ideas. There is not always a clear line between these and the rejoicing at the birth of Jesus bringing a fresh light into the world at this dark midwinter time. A special and unusual treat is the enactment of a Mummers Play from Kentucky. Performed in the traditional manner, the play is typical of folk dramas which survive to this day throughout Britain and North America symbolizing and portraying the death of the land at midwinter and its subsequent rebirth in the spring.
While much of the singing is done in unaccompanied style, the pageant is also stamped with the energetic dance band sound of fiddle, button accordion, electric piano, drums, and concertina. The audience will be supplied with songsheets and encouraged to sing along, though after three decades of touring in New England, a whole generation of young people have grown up with these songs and carols and sing along with as much as they can. Some "new," that is "different," songs and carols are introduced every year. Performers are John Roberts and Tony Barrand, widely known for their lively presentations of English folk songs, and Fred Breunig and Andy Davis, well known in New England as dance callers and musicians.
Nowell Sing We Clear has become a regular part of some communities on the Eastern seaboard.This year the ensemble will be playing as far south as West Chester, PA, and as far north as Brattleboro, VT. The group has several recordings of songs from the show which have been popular items in many households at this time of year. Their CDs are drawn from songs learned for their concerts: The newest is Just Say Nowell, Hail Smiling Morn has a cover designed by famous Vermont artist, Mary Azarian, and Nowell SingWe Four.The first three LP recordings are all well represented on a compact disk, The Best of Nowell: 1976 - 1985 All recordings are available from Golden Hind Records.
Pub Carol Sing
Sunday, December 6th, 2009, 1-4pmin the back room at Doyle's Café
3484 Washington St, Jamaica Plain, MA
Free! (You can purchase food and drinks there.)
Sponsored by the Folk Song Society of Greater Boston and the West Gallery Quire
Carols from the Sheffield, West Gallery, and Sacred Harp traditions (as well as some standard favorites). Music will be available
Email Suzanne Mrozak (suzanne AT smrozak DOT com) for more information.
Dónal Maguire House concert
Thurs., Dec. 10, 2009, 8pmBrookline, MA
$12 for all at the door
Reservations required; email suzanne AT smrozak DOT com for
reservations and directions.
Dónal Maguire has been singing and playing in public on and off for thirty years. His emigration to England as a fifteen-year-old paradoxically accelerated his interest in Irish music and culture. The London Singers Workshop helped to develop his singing and he became a resident at the Singers Club, joining Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger, John Faulkner, Sandra Kerr, Terry Yarnell et al. Séamus Ennis and A.L. Lloyd had earlier been resident at the club.
While Dónal has been primarily associated with unaccompanied singing, he has significant other 'strings to his bow'. Dónal is a fine interpreter of contemporary material, as well as an excellent singer of traditional material, and can accompany himself on a range of stringed instruments. He is universally recognised as one of the finest players of Irish dance music on mandolin and tenor banjo.
Annual FSSGB Members' Concert
First Parish of Watertown
35 Church Street, Watertown
$10.00 general admission, $8.00 FSSGB members and students
Children 17 and under free
(See map and calculate directions on MapQuest)
For public transportation, check the MBTA web site.
This venue is handicap accessible
Wondering what to expect?
Listen to some sound clips on CDBaby.com!
Purchase tickets online at: .
Use the code season50 to get member prices.
The annual FSSGB members' concert is always a popular event. Our members perform songs which range from traditional ballads to original compositions, and from instrumental to a cappella pieces. Some of the instruments that have been played at this concert in the past include violin, cello, banjo, mandolin, guitar, bass, keyboard and concertina. Some FSSGB members who have performed at this event have gone on to have successful performing careers, such as Elijah Wald, Mark Ryer, Fool's Errand and Merle Roesler.
Many new musical relationships have formed as a result of the members' concert, including our hosts for the evening, Two for the Show - Ellen Schmidt and Jake Kensinger! They began playing together many years ago for a members' concert, and have since become very active performers in the local folk music scene.
Members are invited to sign up to perform - one song or a spoken word piece. You may perform alone or with others. Some performers have been participating for years; others will do so for the first time. Children are most welcome. The program will feature professional musicians as well as living room folk enthusiasts. All are welcome. The Midweek Singers are an important part of the program as are the many members who show up especially for this event. The audience is always supportive and lively.
To sign up, you may contact Ellen by email at eschmidt01742 AT yahoo DOT com. Deadline is January 2, 2010 - this is firm!
Elizabeth LaPrelle and Matt Brown
St. John's United Methodist Church
80 Mt. Auburn St, Watertown
$15.00 general admission, $10.00 FSSGB members, $5 for students
All children 17 and under free
(See map and calculate directions on MapQuest)
For public transportation, check the MBTA web site.
This venue is handicap accessible
Purchase tickets online at:
Use the code season50 to get member prices.
We are pleased to present these young artists who are "Carrying on the Tradition" as a special part of our 50th anniversary season.
Sheila Kay Adams said of Elizabeth LaPrelle "Anyone can learn the old ballads. There are numerous collections in libraries and books that are available on-line. But, Elizabeth is interested in the feel, the sound, the ornamentation of these songs. She is, in my opinion, one of maybe a handful of young singers able to capture the rhythm, the intensity, the breaks and sighs, that make this style of singing authentic. The only problem I have while listening to Elizabeth is that I'm always listening through tears. She reminds me so much of my older relatives - the same profound feeling for the ballad, yet with such a clear voice."
Though primarily a solo performer, Matt has been a musician with dances ensembles (including Footworks and Rhythm in Shoes), has made guest appearances with touring acts (Tim O'Brien, Uncle Earl, and The Wilders), and is an active teacher. He offers lessons on fiddle, banjo, and guitar, and cherishes teaching workshops whenever he can. He has several albums to his credit: the solo album, Falls of Richmond, his debut with Paul Brown & Beverly Smith, Lone Prairie, and an instructional recording, Old-Time Fiddle Lesson, Vol. 1. Matt is looking forward to the release in March of My Native Home, which features Brittany Haas, Ben Krakauer, Tim O'Brien, and Mark Schatz. All of Matt's recordings are available from 5-String Productions, an independent record label and studio based in West Chester, PA.
Sally Rogers and Howie Bursen
First Parish of Watertown
35 Church Street, Watertown
$15.00 general admission, $10.00 FSSGB members
All children 17 and under free
(See map and calculate directions on MapQuest)
For public transportation, check the MBTA web site.
This venue is handicap accessible
Purchase tickets online at: .
Use the code season50 to get member prices.
This exciting duo, whose harmonies will send shivers up your spine, has racked up a string of successes in songwriting, studio recording, and crowd-pleasing displays of instrumental and vocal virtuosity. They have appeared on Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion" public radio show, and have toured from coast to coast. Their first album together, Satisfied Customers, on the Flying Fish label, gives testimony to their wide-ranging abilities.
Sally Rogers has achieved national recognition as a solo performer. Sally's second album was voted "Best Folk Album of the Year" by the National Association of Independent Record Distributors. Pete Seeger said, "Sally has a beautiful voice and has written many extraordinarily good songs that are going to reach out and touch large numbers of people. They sure are great songs!" Rogers has served as Connecticut's official State Troubadour, and also as a Master Teaching Artist for the Connecticut Commission on the Arts.
Howie Bursen is known for his warm baritone voice, devilish sense of humor, inventive guitar arrangements, and red-hot banjo wizardry. Chicago Magazine said, "stunning guitar arrangements...easily one of the finest banjo players ever heard." His song, "Small Business Blues", was recently recorded by Ronnie Gilbert, Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie and Holly Near on their album, Harp. Pete also included it in his book, Carry it On, published by Simon and Schuster.
Rogers and Bursen met, appropriately enough at a Greenwich Village coffeehouse in 1981, and ever since have been building a national reputation at festivals and concert halls throughout the U.S.A. and Canada. They were married in 1982 and now make their home on the shores of a one-time cranberry bog in Eastern Connecticut.
Benefit concert featuring the Dave Rowe Trio
First Parish of Watertown
35 Church Street, Watertown
Admission $20 at the door for all
(See map and calculate directions on MapQuest)
For public transportation, check the MBTA web site.
This venue is handicap accessible
The Dave Rowe Trio presents a fresh take on the folk scene with powerful three-part harmonies, instrumental virtuosity, exciting showmanship, and keen songwriting. They respectfully build on tradition to move the music into a new groove. Dave Rowe has a strong heritage to draw on, having grown up immersed in music. His father was Tom Rowe, Schooner Fare's bass player, whose driving rhythms laid the foundation for that group's robust sound.
This unique group uses Steinberger solid body instruments instead of acoustic instruments in the playing of traditional folk, Celtic, Bluegrass, and original music. The Steinberger instruments optimize the acoustic sound for the electronic age with true close-your-eyes-and-it's-acoustic tone. Music had always been a passion for Dave; now he is continuing and expanding on a legacy so well begun.
Proceeds from this concert will benefit The Helen Robinson Wright Charitable Fund. This is a committee of the First Parish of Watertown which makes decisions on appropriation of grants to individuals in need.
Jeff Davis House concert
Sat., March 6, 2010, 8pmLocation TBA
$12 for all at the door
Reservations required; email suzanne AT smrozak DOT com for
reservations and directions.
Jeff Davis is one of those musicians who makes everything look easy. He plays superb old-time fiddle, is a master of clawhammer banjo and just as good on guitar, mandolin or mandocello, without ever striving too hard for showy licks or empty virtuosity. His singing, based on long immersion in the styles of the old singers is truly timeless, conjuring vividly the world of the cowboy or the Civil War soldier. "When Jeff Davis sings the repertoire of the Appalachian Mountains," said the Chronicle Herald of Nova Scotia, "he cuts through decades and across borders, sitting us right down in the dirt in front of a weather-beaten shack, at the feet of a hillbilly singer - he combines authenticity and art in a rare way." Jeff has an unusual and refreshing repertoire that includes songs and music from New England and the American West, as well as the more common Southern mountain material. His performances range from Appalachian ballads to Long Island fiddle tunes, songs of the civil war to African- American-style banjo-picking.
Jeff Davis worked for many years with Jeff Warner in a partnership described by the American magazine Dirty Linen in a review of their album Wilder Joy as "one of the best old-time duos to be found in this whole country". Since striking out as a soloist, Davis has been busy with educational projects, while still finding time for regular tours of the UK. His solo CD, Some Fabulous Yonder, released in 2007, attracted very enthusiastic reviews.
Donna Hebert and Max Cohen House concert
Thursday, March 18, 2010, 8pmHeartbeat Collective 35 Wyman St., Jamaica Plain, MA
Admission: $15 for all
Box office: 617-522-3000
Donna Hébert's fierce fiddle rhythms and Max Cohen's impeccable groove guitar link to create an orchestra of sound from a simple fiddle-guitar duet.
Concerts draw from Donna's 40 years of French-Canadian and Celtic fiddling with seminal folk bands, her original tunes and songs shared with Max's effervescent guitar solos and original songs. Demonstrating their amazing musical chemistry, their joint composition, Raven's Wing, (written in memory of Donna's father), has become an audience favorite - a perfect example of the magic they create together!
This concert is co-sponsored by Fiddling Demystified and FSSGB.
Gordon Bok
St. John's United Methodist Church
80 Mt. Auburn Street, Watertown
$18 members and students in advance
$20 non-members in advance
$22 for all adults at the door
Children 17 and under free
(See map and calculate directions on MapQuest)
For public transportation, check the MBTA web site.
This venue is handicap accessible
We strongly recommend that you purchase tickets in advance for this concert!
Purchase tickets online at: .
Use the code season50 to get member prices.
Tickets will also be available at Sandy's Music in Cambridge and the Minor Chord in Littleton. If you prefer mail order, you can send a check
payable to FSSGB Inc., and a self-addressed stamped envelope to FSSGB Tickets, c/o Lori Fassman, 17 Faulkner Hill Road, Acton, MA 01720.
Gordon Bok grew up around the boatyards of Camden, Maine. In his early years, he worked on a variety of vessels - on America's Northeast coast and others - fishing boats, passenger schooners, and as deckhand, mate, and captain of various yachts. On the boats, he learned many tunes, sea songs, stories, legends and ballads from the people he worked with. After high school, he worked on the boats in the summer months while the rest of the year he worked in Philadelphia and other cities as a carpenter and teacher. It was there that he found a thriving folk music scene and began performing. Dissatisfied with the images generally portrayed of people who work on the water, he began to write songs based on the experiences of those he knew - real people whose language was honest, whose feelings were credible. These early works, songs like "Bay of Fundy", began to get attention, as did his rich voice and fluid guitar work. Paul Stookey of the folk trio Peter, Paul, and Mary, produced Gordon's first album for Verve.
Besides his countless solo appearances, Gordon toured for nearly thirty years with the trio, Bok, Muir and Trickett. He has also performed with his wife, harper Carol Rohl and with Anne Dodson, Cindy Kallet, Bob Zentz, Margaret MacArthur and other well-known folk artists. He has appeared in concert with the Paul Winter Consort and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and has been heard on NPR's A Prairie Home Companion. He has served both as Artist-in Residence and faculty member of the College of the Atlantic. Although he never graduated from college, he received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the Maine Maritime Academy in 1997.
In addition to performing in concert halls, coffeehouses and festivals throughout the U.S., Canada, Great Britain, Scandinavia, New Zealand and Australia, Gordon has taught choral singing and song writing at summer music camps and other gatherings. He has organized choral groups in his own community and gladly shares his knowledge with others wishing to do the same. A superb storyteller, he often introduces songs in concert with a bit of their origin and history.
The Legacy of Johnny Cash and the Carter Family
Cary Hall 1605 Massachusetts Ave, Lexington, MA
The Family Folk Chorale celebrates its Tenth Anniversary season with a concert that highlights our American music heritage with songs written and made famous by the Original Carter Family and the legendary Johnny Cash. Featuring guest artists John Carter and Laura Cash from Nashville, this special event will be held in Lexington's Cary Hall on Sunday, March 28 at 3 p.m.
John Carter Cash has won multiple Grammys and, as the only son of Johnny Cash and June Carter, he is the living embodiment of the intertwined and profound legacies of the Carter Family and Johnny Cash. Since singing on stage as a child with his parents, John Carter has performed regularly as a guitar player and vocalist with his father's band, produced his mother's records, and has continued working as an award-winning producer with artists such as Ricky Skaggs, Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow and others. He also makes music with his wife Laura, an accomplished bluegrass singer and fiddler whom he met when she was hired to play with his mother June Carter.
The Carter Family, considered to be "the First Family of Country Music" and the vital roots of our bluegrass and modern folk traditions, inspired early folk icons like Woody Guthrie with their radio appearances in the 1920s and 30s. Mother Maybelle, Sara, and A.P. Carter originated and popularized throughout North America classic tunes such as "Keep on the Sunny Side" and "Will the Circle Be Unbroken", which form the aesthetic foundation of much contemporary folk, country and bluegrass song writing.
One of their early radio listeners was Johnny Cash, who found comfort and a way to rise from the challenge of his Depression-era Arkansas childhood with a dream kindled by the songs of the Carters and others. It is now well-known that dream led Johnny to become one of the most influential artists of the last 50 years with his rich voice, broadly appealing songwriting on tunes such as "I Walk the Line", "Get Rhythm" and many others, collaborations with folk greats like Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger and country music icons like the Carters and Willie Nelson, and chart-topping albums including the Folsom Prison recordings which outsold the Who and the Beatles at the height of their popularity.
All ages are invited on this special occasion to participate in continuing this intertwined legacy by singing along. Special guests John Carter and Laura Cash, the multi-generational Family Folk Chorale, members of the Lexington Waldorf School Chorus together with the voices of parents, children, grandparents, friends, and neighbors will lift our hearts singing many well-known and seminal tunes by the legendary Carter Family and Johnny Cash.
John Carter and Laura Cash's appearance here in Lexington has been made possible by the Bill Meikle Visiting Artist Fund, a special endowment created by Barbara Meikle in honor of her late husband and cherished FFC member Bill Meikle.
For more information and ticket sales, visit www.familyfolkchorale.org.
The Short Sisters
St. John's United Methodist Church
80 Mt. Auburn St, Watertown
$15.00 general admission, $10.00 FSSGB members
All children 17 and under free
(See map and calculate directions on MapQuest)
For public transportation, check the MBTA web site.
This venue is handicap accessible
Purchase tickets online at: .
Use the code season50 to get member prices.
Fay Baird, Kate Seeger, and Kim Wallach have been singing and performing together since 1979. Though they are not really sisters, and not particularly short, they do sound like sisters and share a delight in harmony. The songs chosen by the trio tell stories and paint pictures, conveying strong visual images through music. They favor a capella arrangements but also accompany themselves with guitar, autoharp and banjo.
The Short Sisters challenge the audience's imagination and invite their participation with compelling words, powerful melodies and elegant arrangements. Audiences comment on more than just the trio's extraordinary harmonies and choice of material. Their playfulness and pleasure in each other's company leave listeners energized and cheered. Their repertoire includes intricate rounds, songs from American, African-American and British traditions and material from contemporary songwriters. The Short Sisters' favorite songs, funny or moving, thought-provoking or frivolous, traditional or newly written, convey optimism about tackling life's challenges.
The trio's performance list covers Folksong Societies and Coffeehouses in their home states of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Florida, forays to Michigan and California, and regular appearances in New Jersey, New England and Washington D.C. They have recorded five albums, four of which are available on CD.
They perform songs both traditional and new: unusual rounds, musical curiosities and chorus songs, Sacred Harp songs, ballads and much more. Whether a capella or with guitar, autoharp and banjo, the Short Sisters blend their voices in stunning and original harmonies.
Martyn Wyndham-Read House concert
Sat., April 17, 2010, 8pmLocation TBA
$12 for all at the door
Reservations required; email suzanne AT smrozak DOT com for
reservations and directions.
English by birth, Martyn first developed his great interest in folksongs of the outback when he went to Australia in the early 1960's. There, while working on the South Australian sheep station "Emu Springs", he gained first hand experience of life as a bush worker and at the same time fell in love with Australia and it's music.
During his subsequent travels he spent much of his time seeking out and learning old songs directly from drovers, cane cutters and other bush workers. As the folk song revival gathered pace in Australia, Martyn found himself singing these songs to audiences all across the Australian continent and after seven years down under, he returned to England where he performed these songs to an appreciative British audience. Concert tours spreading his style of music to the far corners of the world have been the norm since then.
To date his recording career spans 33 years and more than 30 albums, many considered classics of their genre. One of the most engaging performers you're ever likely to see, his exceptionally intimate performance combines songs, humorous bush poetry recitations, stories and anecdotes of outback life and comments on Australian history and culture that typically leave the audience ready to book the next flight out to Sydney!
Cathy Barton and Dave Para
First Parish of Watertown
35 Church Street, Watertown
$15.00 general admission, $10.00 FSSGB members and Dulcimer Festival ticketholders
All children 17 and under free
(See map and calculate directions on MapQuest)
For public transportation, check the MBTA web site.
This venue is handicap accessible
Purchase tickets online at: .
Use the code season50 to get member or festival ticketholder prices.
This concert is co-sponsored by the Folk Song Society of Greater Boston and the Cambridge Center for Adult Ed Spring Dulcimer Festival.
Cathy Barton and Dave Para have created dynamic performances acclaimed for 25 years for their variety and expertise in vocal and instrumental music. They have celebrated the musical traditions and folklife of Missouri and the Ozarks in festivals, clubs, concert halls, schools and studios across the U.S. and Europe. Their audiences are as diverse as their repertoire.
A versatile duo, Dave and Cathy play several stringed instruments including hammered and fretted dulcimers, banjo, guitar and autoharp, as well as "found" instruments like bones, spoons, mouthbow and leaf. Their concerts present a range of music from the lively dance tunes they have collected in their home region to old ballads to new songs. They have conducted several instrumental workshops as well as those about songs from the Civil War, from American rivers, old gospel songs, children's songs and Christmas music.
Putting the song before the singer, Dave and Cathy are caretakers of a long musical heritage, and they are known for deep understanding and affection for traditional music. They also keep their minds and ears open as the roots and branches of folk music run deep and spread wide. Missouri is a social and geographic meeting place, and its rich cultural diversity continues to inspire Dave and Cathy's music and broaden their repertoire.
